Calyn's 1st Day of 1st Grade

I am going to go ahead and apologize this is kind of a lengthy post. I hope you have a few minutes to read it.
This morning we dropped Calyn off for her first day of school. You could tell the butterflies were flying in full force in that little tummy of hers. She even made the comment at breakfast that she wasn’t sure she could eat. Her exact words were “my face isn’t nervous but my tummy is. I don’t know how much of this I can eat.”
After she got all ready we went out in the front yard to snap some pictures. The little girl and her mom that just moved in across the street came over and asked where the bus picked up. We told them and then introduced ourselves. As it turns out the little girl is in 1st grade too and is in Calyn’s class.
Like last year we met the Dautrich’s at Connie and Jack’s house (they live very close to the school) for pictures and to walk to school. As the mom I did fine, never once did I feel like I was going to cry. As she sat at her little desk looking very nervous I was a little worried that her tears were getting ready to start flowing. Then her best friend from last year, Audrey, came running into the classroom with a big “CALYN!!!!” and a hug to follow. This put a huge smile on Calyn’s face and all of a sudden the nerves seemed to melt away. I am so glad she has a few kids in her class that she knows from Girl Scouts and from her class last year.
I know I said I did fine, no tears. That was at the school. When I left and turned on the radio the following poem was read. Now I know this is not her first year so parts of it don’t apply but it still rings very true. It is from a father’s perspective of his little girl going off to school. It is just a little piece of how a parent feels when their child starts to venture off into the great big world. After the poem I have posted some pictures of the big morning.
Enjoy!

Dear World,
I bequeath to you today one little girl in a crispy blue dress with two brown eyes and a happy laugh that ripples all day long and a flash of light blonde hair that bounces in the sunlight when she runs.
I trust you'll treat her well. She's slipping out of the backyard of my heart this morning and skipping off down the street to her first day of school. Never again will she be completely mine. Prim and proper, she'll wave a young independent hand this morning and say "goodbye", and walk with little lady steps to the schoolhouse.
Now, she'll learn to stand in lines and wait by the alphabet for her name to be called. She'll learn to tune her ears for sounds of school bells and deadlines, and she'll learn to giggle, and gossip, and look at the ceiling in a disinterested way, and she'll learn to be jealous.
Now she'll learn how not to cry. No longer will she have time to sit on the front porch on a hot summer day and watch an ant scurry across a crack in the sidewalk. Nor will she have time to pop out of bed with the dawn to kiss lilac blossoms in the morning dew.
No...now she'll worry about important things like grades and which dress to wear and whose best friend is whose. She'll forget her blocks and dolls, and now she'll find new heroes. For five full years now, I've been her sage and Santa Claus, pal and playmate, parent and friend.
Now she'll learn to share her worship with her teachers, which is only right. But, no longer will I be the smartest, greatest man in the whole world. Today, when that school bell rings for the first time, she'll learn what it means to be a member of the group, with all its privileges and its disadvantages, too. She'll learn in time that proper ladies do not laugh out loud or kiss dogs or keep frogs in pickle jars in bedrooms, or even watch ants scurry across cracks in the summer sidewalk. Today, she'll learn for the first time that all who smile at her are not her friends, and I'll stand on the front porch and watch her start out on the long lonely journey to becoming a woman.
So world, I bequeath to you today, one little girl in a crispy blue dress with two brown eyes and a happy laugh that ripples all day long, and a flash of blonde hair that bounces in the sunlight when she runs.
I trust you will treat her well.

Getting ready to leave the house

 My big 1st grader

 The kids and Matt

 Me and my babies

 Calyn (1st Grade), Corry (2nd Grade), Drew (Kindergarten) and Max (Pre-K)

 Our family

 Jack, Connie and the kids

 Mom and the kids

 Getting ready to walk to the school

 The girls and Max

 Too cute to not post on here.

 She looks so grown up here

 Drew making his way into Mrs. Phillips class

 This was the closest I got to Corry's class room. I didn't want to embarrass her or anything.

 Calyn in front of her classroom

 Getting all cozy at her desk

 Calyn all smiles after seeing her best friend Audrey.